Radhika Patel (she/her) is a fourth year PhD student in Plant Biology at Rutgers University in Dr. Donald Kobayashi’s Lab. Currently, her research focuses on the genetic characterization of bacterial populations infecting hazelnuts in New Jersey. She graduated from the Honors College in 2019 with a B.S. in Biotechnology and minor in American Studies. Her work with bacterial plant pathogens started in 2016 as an undergraduate researcher with Dr. Donald Kobayashi. Since then, she has worked on a variety of bacterial diseases affecting many crops, including potato, pepper, and tomato. Her interests include ultimate frisbee, soccer, crochet, anime, hiking, and tea. Radhika is excited to share her experiences with navigating Rutgers, figuring out life/career goals, and how to pick a graduate school and thesis advisor.